This invention relates to the treatment of gaseous streams and more in particular to a method of recovering hydrogen bromide gas from a gaseous stream.
Commercially valuable hydrogen bromide gas streams often occur either as a result of the intentional synthesis of the gas or as a by-product gas arising from other chemical processes. These gaseous streams are usually contaminated by varying amounts of other gases such as hydrogen chloride, oxygen, nitrogen, bromine, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, methane, and/or inert gases. The presence of these contaminants results in large production and/or solvent losses in various products produced from the hydrogen bromide.
One common method of removing hydrogen bromide gas from a contaminated stream is by liquefication of the gaseous stream. The hydrogen bromide can subsequently be stored and shipped as a liquid under pressure. Removal of undesired gases, with the exception of hydrogen chloride, bromine, and carbon dioxide occurs during the liquefication process.
However, the liquefication process is costly and has a number of disadvantages, mainly high pressure and corrosiveness of the hydrogen bromide. Therefore, it is desirable that a new process be developed for the purification and recovery of hydrogen bromide gas from gaseous streams.